The Air Force recently announced the victory of the Demons over their adversaries during US Air Force Academy basic training, which ends as the new cadets begin their academic year.

Much has been made of the apparently “supernatural” terminology sometimes invoked during Basic Cadet Training (BCT) at the US Air Force Academy. For example, each of the squadrons of cadets is known by a letter, from A to as high as J, depending on the size of the incoming class. They are: 

• Aggressors
• Barbarians
• Cobras
• Demons
• Executioners
• Flying Tigers
• Guts
• Hellcats
• Interceptors
• Jaguars

Each flight also had some play on the word or mantra with which cadets are expected to proudly sound off. For example, the Executioners yelled “heads will roll.” The Hellcats sounded off with “Hellacious Hellcats.”

Decades ago — and long before Michael “Mikey” Weinstein accused USAFA of Christian favoritism — basic cadets were asked after each summer session if they had been offended by the supernatural references of demons, the use of “hellacious,” and even the moniker of “Heathen Flight.” No significant offense was ever reported, either from religious cadets objecting to demonic references or non-theistic cadets objecting to supernatural ones.

The “Heathen Flight” was another long-standing tradition during basic training. Each flight would generally stop by the chapel while returning from another training location, dropping off those basic cadets who wished to attend. Those who did not want to attend were put in (now a much smaller) formation and marched back to their rooms or tents. The formation was referred to as Heathen Flight.

While it was reportedly the source of an accusation of religious discrimination against atheists a few years ago, atheist cadets themselves found the moniker amusing, rather than offensive; in addition, the Heathen Flights were rarely composed of just atheists. Just as some non-theists may have attended chapel services for their own reasons, likewise some religious cadets marched back in the Heathen Flight.

Contrary to popular belief, cadets who did not attend chapel were not forced to clean their barracks, though there was nothing to stop them from doing so if they chose. Instead, most used the time to write letters or do something personal.

The military culture has a long and complex history of integration with supernatural imagery and terminology. Such traditions generally persist because of their cool factor, not because of any institutional support for the ideology behind them. It is unlikely, for example, that any of the basic cadets in the Demons honestly felt any connection with their evil spiritual namesake.

The new cadets will now move on to formal cadet squadrons with more politically correct names, like Vikings (Valhalla), the Black Panthers, and the Grim Reapers.

The Demons were also victorious in 2009, from which much of this article is repeated.

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